I am at my wits end and am looking for any advice on the following problem. If you could give it a think and tell me what you believe is up I would greatly appreciate it.

I have a 1965 Chevy pick up with a 396, I went to start it on Thursday and nothing. I had zero spark at the spark plugs. I assumed I had a bad coil and promptly replaced it with a new moroso coil, still no spark. I removed the entire HEI distributor from the truck and took it into a local shop, had it bench tested it and it worked. I took it back to my truck installed it and no spark. I bought and installed a new ignition switch and re wired all the wires to and from my ignition switch. I have 12 volts at the coil I have 12 volts going from the coil to the distributor base via the pigtail but still no spark. Took it back to the shop put it on the bench and it works.
I have a good ground from the engine block to the engine frame. I jumped the distributor directly from the battery to the coil as well as the ground and unplugged the power pigtail to remove any faults that may be lurking in my wiring, no spark. Now here is where it gets interesting. I took the distributor out of the car and connect power off my battery and ground from the same mounting plate that holds the distributor in, spin the cam gear in my hand and it has sparks. Put it back in the truck no spark. I know what you are thinking, broke or damaged timing chain or gear. I have verified that I have rotation several times over the past 4 days.

Any help will certainly gain you entrance into car heaven.

Terry (ter-nan)